First off, this series is being done as a bit of a lark as wargaming has absolutely nothing to do with Christmas so if anyone is offended, please just stop reading now.

On the 10th day of Christmas War Gaming my true love gave to me…

10 Ottoman Troops Besieging

Fire & Stone: Siege of Vienna 1683 is a historical game focused on one of the most dramatic sieges in history when a 100,000-strong Ottoman army arrived outside the Habsburg capital of Vienna. Inside the city, 12,000 infantry, a city militia, and citizen-soldiers prepared to mount a planned defense. Historically, as the Ottoman siege lines drew closer to the city walls, the outnumbered Viennese hoped that a relief force would arrive in time to save them. For both sides, the real battle is a race against time. With a completely different set of cards for each player, players will have to conduct assaults against weep prepared fortifications, dig tunnels under these fortifications and pack them with explosives, and launch attack after attack to try to win the day.

As the attacking Ottoman player, your job will be really difficult in this one as you will have to properly manage your Troop Cards to ensure that you don’t lose your best units, which are the 3 Battle Value Janissaries, and attack at an even pace to be able to select the most Troop Cards when attacking. Each player can draw and play at least 3 Troop Cards for each battle but the attacking Ottomans can gain as many as +3 cards for a total of 7 cards if they have multiple adjacent forces to the hexagon that you are attacking. Each of these Troop Cards has a numeric value which is their Battle Value and they range from 1-3 and each side is limited to a certain number of each type of cards. Once the Troop Cards are chosen, they are laid out and revealed but now the attacker has to deal with the Fortifications present in the hexagon they are attacking as each level of fortification (either Structural or Improvised) will push back 1 Troop Card from the Front Line and they won’t be included in the total. Finally, the total attack value of each side is calculated and compared with the highest Battle Value winning the battle.

In the picture above the Ottomans will have to push 2 Troop Cards back off of the frontline and this will mean that they will push the two 2 Battle Value Troop Cards which will mean their total Battle Value will be just 6. When compared to the Battle Value of the defending Habsburgs of 6 this will result in a tie which will be adjudicated in favor of the defender. This game is pretty unique and each player will have to perfectly plan out their limited Troop Cards in order to be able to survive and win the game. There are also Tactics Cards that can be played to do special things such as remove an enemy Troop Card, increase your Battle Value or other such benefits.

Here is our review video for Fire & Stone: Siege of Vienna 1683: